Economic analyses of maize storage innovations in southern Benin

Key words: Storage innovations, maize, information sources, farmers’ perceptions, adoption and modification, treatment effects, sample selection bias, correction function approach, technology abandonment, cross-sectional and panel data, Benin.
Maize is a staple food and an important source of income for farmers in southern Benin. It is stored at village level in traditional storage structures and treated with conservation products. To improve control pest damage in stored maize, improved wooden granaries and a new product, Sofagrain®, were introduced in 1992. On-farm trials indicated that after six months of storage, the losses were reduced from 30% to only 5% for maize treated with Sofagrain® stored in an improved wooden granary. Although the effectiveness of storage innovations against pests is well documented, little is known about the socioeconomic aspects of promotion of these innovations in southern Benin. Using appropriate econometric models, this study investigates the perceptions of farmers regarding the characteristics of storage innovations and the causal effect of participation in extension on their formation, the adoption of storage innovations and effect of sources of information on the determinants of adoption, the impact of adopting storage innovation on schooling expenditure and the factors that affect the abandonment of storage innovations. First, the empirical results show that the effectiveness against pests and the length of the storage are the most important preferred characteristics and are provided by the storage innovation. Second, farmer’s participation in an extension program on these storage technologies has an important effect on the probability that positive perceptions of the quality of effectiveness against insects are provided by the improved wooden granary and the Sofagrain®. Third, there are differences in adoption and modification decisions between farmers who are informed by extension agents and those informed by other farmers. Fourth, adoption of a storage innovation increases the schooling expenditure of adopters. Finally, the study highlights the effect of road conditions, availability of family labor and availability of the protection measure Sofagrain® on the probability of abandonment of storage innovations.